Premier cru classe from Pauillac and among the great red Bordeaux wines notoriously the most powerful, mineral and robust, a literally monumental wine which absolutely needs cellaring to become accessible and a long development time, often decades, to reach its peak. It is then of overwhelming power, richness and complexity and one of the most long lasting of all wines – even in lesser vintages still remarkable, which makes it to many the non plus ultra of red Bordeaux wine.
Pictured above the Grand Vin of Chateau Latour 2000, this outstanding vintage delivered a wine which (almost naturally one is tempted to say) many tasters predict to have a great future.
78 hectares of Chateau Latour are under vine (now 80 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 18 percent Merlot plus 2 percent Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot), the fruit for the Grand Vin coming exclusively from the “Enclos” near the Chateau, an area of 47 hectares.
There´s a second wine called “Les Forts De Latour” made mainly of the grapes from the young wines of the Enclos and grapes from the other vineyards of the estate. This wine is generally regarded to be on par with good deuxieme crus classes and in blind tastings often mistaken for the Grand Vin of Chateau Latour (the price nowadays reflects it – pictured below Les Forts De Latour 1970 vintage):
In recent years, there´s a third wine (usually made from the young wines outside the Enclos), just named “Pauillac” but easily identifiable through the label displaying the ancient tower of Chateau Latour.
Below an example of the longevity of a Chateau Latour: Vintage 1955, after half a century still reported as looking youthful (though by now fully developed), this wine is supposed to last longer.
The Grand Vin of Chateau Latour 1995 on the other hand, praised as really fine, very intense, not too austere and less massively tannic, is just beginning to evolve, and should highly profit from further cellaring for at least another decade.
Chateau Latour, Pauillac
Premier cru classe from Pauillac and among the great red Bordeaux wines notoriously the most powerful, mineral and robust, a literally monumental wine which absolutely needs cellaring to become accessible and a long development time, often decades, to reach its peak. It is then of overwhelming power, richness and complexity and one of the most long lasting of all wines – even in lesser vintages still remarkable, which makes it to many the non plus ultra of red Bordeaux wine.
Pictured above the Grand Vin of Chateau Latour 2000, this outstanding vintage delivered a wine which (almost naturally one is tempted to say) many tasters predict to have a great future.
78 hectares of Chateau Latour are under vine (now 80 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 18 percent Merlot plus 2 percent Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot), the fruit for the Grand Vin coming exclusively from the “Enclos” near the Chateau, an area of 47 hectares.
There´s a second wine called “Les Forts De Latour” made mainly of the grapes from the young wines of the Enclos and grapes from the other vineyards of the estate. This wine is generally regarded to be on par with good deuxieme crus classes and in blind tastings often mistaken for the Grand Vin of Chateau Latour (the price nowadays reflects it – pictured below Les Forts De Latour 1970 vintage):
In recent years, there´s a third wine (usually made from the young wines outside the Enclos), just named “Pauillac” but easily identifiable through the label displaying the ancient tower of Chateau Latour.
Below an example of the longevity of a Chateau Latour: Vintage 1955, after half a century still reported as looking youthful (though by now fully developed), this wine is supposed to last longer.
The Grand Vin of Chateau Latour 1995 on the other hand, praised as really fine, very intense, not too austere and less massively tannic, is just beginning to evolve, and should highly profit from further cellaring for at least another decade.